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Broncos have give-and-take offseason

Denver sacrifices riches on offense for sake of defense

ENGLEWOOD — — If there has been improvement to the Broncos in the past few weeks, it has been not so much through addition as rebalancing.

Yes, the Broncos dropped a high-dive, free-agent splash on their defensive side of the ball. But the overall roster picture shows that while the Broncos added three standout defensive players — DeMarcus Ware, Aqib Talib and T.J. Ward — they also lost three offensive starters in Eric Decker, Knowshon Moreno and Zane Beadles.

Ware, Talib and Ward will bring $32 million in 2014 salaries to the Broncos' defense this year. Decker and Beadles will make a combined $17.5 million in 2014 with other NFL teams. To get something on one side, the Broncos had to give up from the other.

Shifting the assets only makes sense for a Broncos team that last season statistically had the best offense in NFL history but was No. 22 in points allowed. Mix them together and the Broncos were close to a championship team last season because they reached the Super Bowl, but so far away once they took the field against the Seattle Seahawks.

Do the recent additions and subtractions add up to a better Broncos team in 2014?

"That's always subjective," said John Elway, the Broncos' general manager who directed the potentially seismic shift in his roster. "On paper you can say that, but we're talking about a Super Bowl team in 2013. Now we're better too, because we had six guys on (injured reserve) who were on the defensive side that when we took them off IR we became a lot better on defense."

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And then, after some explanation, Elway directly answered the question: Are the Broncos better?

"That's hard to say, but I think we have a chance to be better on defense," he said. "Offensively, it's going to be hard to be better."

Precisely. The Broncos set an NFL record last season by scoring 606 points. They averaged 37.9 points per game. Gone from the offense are 87 catches and 11 touchdowns from Decker, 1,586 yards and 13 touchdowns rushing and receiving from Moreno and a four-year starting left guard in Beadles.

The Broncos replaced Decker by signing former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who has never compiled more than 740 yards or six touchdowns receiving in a season. The Broncos, though, believe he can approach Decker-type numbers now that he's playing with quarterback Peyton Manning in a fast-break passing system.

Moreno will be replaced by second-year tailback Montee Ball. C.J. Anderson and Ronnie Hillman will back up Ball.

Beadles hasn't been replaced, though there still is the draft May 8-10, when the Broncos will have the No. 31, 63 and 95 overall picks. The second phase of free agency is from April until mid-July.

Still, on paper — and that's all any NFL team is during the month of March, names on paper — the Broncos probably aren't as strong offensively without Decker, Moreno and Beadles. But even if the Broncos drop, say, 20 percent of their offensive production from 2013, that still puts them at 30 points per game in 2014.

If Ware, Talib and Ward, along with the return to health of Von Miller, Chris Harris, Rahim Moore, Kevin Vickerson and Derek Wolfe, can improve the Broncos' defense by 20 percent, the rebalancing of the roster could make the Broncos stronger overall. (Quinton Carter, a rookie starting safety in 2011, is the sixth defensive player referred to by Elway.)

The eight highest-scoring teams in NFL history, and 13 of the top 14, did not win it all. High-scoring offenses tend to occur at the expense of their defense.

To get better, the Broncos had to play Robin Hood and rob from their rich offense to give to their often-poor defense.

"It's a do-over this time of year personnel wise, and then when you start practicing it's a do-over," coach John Fox said. "That's the fun part about it. When you stand in those rooms at the end of the season, you know it's not going to be the same. That's just the way the business is."

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